VIJHL Championship Finals – Game 3 – March 29
Victoria 4 Campbell River 0
The Victoria Cougars played a physical, skilled game punctuated by stellar goaltending enroute to a 4-0 victory and a 2-1 series lead on Friday night in Campbell River.
Similar to Game 2, it was the Cougars that seemed to win the board battles. For their part, the Storm brought their physical out in the back half of the game which generated opportunities.
Early on, with the Storm outshooting Victoria, 8-2, Sikkes made some acrobatic saves and in the third with them pressing even harder, he barred up the door. The Smithers Minor Hockey product stopped all 31 shots he faced and earned his first playoff shutout in his Junior career.
Kevan McBean, Matthew Clark, Booker Chacalias and Mateo Albinati scored for the Cougars but it was the play of Owen Sikkes between the pipes that secured the win; he played a whale of a game.
Victoria went 1 for 5 on the power play, Campbell River was 0 for 6 and have yet to register a goal with the man advantage.
Albinati and Josh Pederson were the game stars.
Game 4 is on Sunday afternoon (3:30) at the Archie Browning Arena in Esquimalt.